Beehive.



No. 867,891. PATENTED OCT. 8, 1907.

P. e. MARBAGH.

BEBHIVE. APPLICATION FILED APB-28.1907.

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UNITED STATES PATENT oEEroE.

FRANK G. MARBAOH, OF MEDINA, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE A. I. ROOT 00., OFMEDINA, OHIO.

BEEHIVE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 8, 1907.

Application filed April 23, 1907. $erial No. 369,800.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK G. MARBACH, of Medina, in the county of Medinaand in the State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and usefulImprovement in Beehives, and do hereby declare that the following is afull, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to theaccompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a vertical section fromfront to rear of a hive embodying my invention; Fig. 2 a perspectiveview of an entrance guard constructed in accordance with my invention; 3a like view of a queen and drone trap embodying my invention; Fig. 4 atop plan view of a queen excluder honey board containing my invention;Fig. 5 a section on line 55 of Fig. 4; Fig. 6 a detail plan view ofanother construction of queen excluder honey board that may -be used.

As is Well known, the worker bees are smaller than queens and drones.This difference in size has been made use of in hive construction forthe separation of queens and drones and the workers, and preventing theexit of queens from the hive or their passage from the brood chamber tothe surplus honey or storing chamber. For thus controlling the movementsof the bees, perforated plates have been used at the points where it isdesired to arrest or prevent the passage of queens and drones, havingopenings of such size as will permit the passage of the worker bees andprevent the passage of queens and drones, and these plates have beenformed by punching holes in sheets of zinc. It has been discovered thatthe bur, or more or less rough edge, unayoidably incident to thepunching of holes in sheet metal, injure the bees as they pass throughthe openings, their wings being caught by and lacerated or torn by theburs.

The object of my invention is to provide a controlling or regulatingdevice which will be free from this very serious objection to thepunched plates, and to such end my invention consists in the means forcontrolling or regulating the movement of bees in or from a hive,constructed substantially as hereinafter specified and claimed.

In the drawings, I show a hive of ordinary construction comprising abottom board A, a brood chamber B resting upon the bottom board, and aSurplus honey or storing chamber 0 above the brood chamber. At theentrance to the hive I show a guard for preventing the exit from thehive of the queen, which consists of a series of horizontal parallelrods or Wires D separated by spaces just wide enough to permit thepassage between a pair of adjacent rods or wires of the worker bees,said rods or wires being attached at their ends to plates E that aretriangular in shape, and similar plates F being provided at intervalsbetween the end plates to preserve the proper spacing of the bars, therods being passed through openings in all the plates contiguous to thehypotenuse of the triangle, so that the series of wires or rods stand,when in position at the entrance of the hive, at about an angle of 45,and either of theother two sides of the triangle serving as the.bottomof the guard. The rods or wires, which preferably are round in crosssection are entirely free from any burs or rough or jagged surfaces, sothat there is absolutely no danger of injury to the bees in passing incontact with them, and the area of the spaces betweeii adjacent rods orwires is much greater than is possible where the former construction,consisting of a plate of sheet metal with holes punched in it, isemployed, so that, besides the important advantage of obviating injuryto the bees, I secure the advantage of freer or ampler passageways forthe bees.

As shown in Fig. 3, my invention is applied to a queen and drone trap ofwell-known construction, such trap comprising a rectangular frame Gcontaining in its upper part a compartment H into which the queens anddrones pass, their exit from the hive being obstructed by an arrangementof horizontal parallel rods or wires I extending from side to side ofthe frame G and from the bottom thereof to the bottom of the compartmentH, the rods or wires being separated by spaces large enough to permitthe passage of the worker bees, but not large enough to permit thepassage of the queen and drones, and they being rigidly braced orsupported at intervals intermediate their ends by plates or bars I, asin the case of the entrance guard hereinbefore described.

My invention is also applicable to honey boards placed between the broodchamber and the storage chamber, a construction for this purpose beingillustrated in Figs. 1 and 4, and comprising a horizontal rectangularframe whose horizontal dimensions, of course, correspond with the likedimensions of the hive, from end to end of which is a series ofhorizontal parallel rods or wires spaced apart a distance sufficient topermit the passage of worker bees, and connected and braced at intervalsby cross bars K. I utilize my queen excluder honey board to provide anentrance for the bees directly to the storing chamber, and for thispurpose I attach to one end of the honey board a strip L which projectsbeyond the hive and constitutes an alighting board for the bees topermit them to directly enter the surplus honey or storing chamber.

As shown in Fig. 4, the queen excluder honey board is composed of rodsor wires in groups alternating with strips of wood Z, while in Fig. 6 aconstruction is shown where rods or wires only are used.

Having thus described my invention, What I claim is: i

1. As a means for controlling the movements of bees, a device comprisinga series of parallel wires or rods held at fixed distances apart topermit the passage between adjacent bars or wires of worker bees only.

2. As a means for controlling the movements of bees,

a device comprising a series of parallel wires or rods held at fixeddistances apart to permit the passage between adjacent bars or wires ofworker bees only, and parts connecting said wires or rods at pointsintermediate their ends.

3. As a means for controlling the movements of bees,

a device comprising a series of parallel horizontal wires or rods heldat fixed distances apart to permit the passage between adjacent bars orwires of worker bees only.

4. As a means for controlling the movements of bees, a device comprisinga series of parallel horizontal wires or rods held at fixed distancesapart to permit the passage between adjacent bars or wires of workerbees only, and parts connecting said wires or rods at pointsintermediate their ends.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand.

FRANK G. MARBACII.

Witnesses:

N. S. Knrmoce, FRANK SPELLMAN.

